Saskatchewan Roughriders trampled in the Stampede City (& six other thoughts)

The Roughriders had a chance to create a relatively drama-free fall for fans in Saskatchewan. Instead, they lost to the Calgary Stampeders 32-15, making it white knuckle time for the next two months.

This has been a great season for the Riders, but there wasn’t one aspect of the game where Saskatchewan had the edge Saturday afternoon and, honestly, the scoreline felt a bit favourable to the Green and White.

As you can tell, I’m less than impressed by their performance. Here are the rest of my thoughts on Saturday’s loss in Calgary.

Just out of reach

Last week, Saskatchewan saw what happens when a team doesn’t take advantage of good field position early. Hamilton had two trips deep into Rider territory early in that game and only came away with two field goals. Well, this week the Riders were on the wrong end of that and somehow managed to make it worse.

Saskatchewan got the benefit of a relatively soft pass interference call to set itself up in great field position. After their first down run got stuffed, the Riders had the perfect play in place, but Trevor Harris’ pass on second-and-11 drifted past the fingertips of a wide-open KeeSean Johnson. The Riders were in a position to do what Hamilton did and settle for three points instead of six early in the ball game…except they missed the field goal.

Obviously, in a game decided by 17 points, the difference between one point and six wasn’t going to make or break you. The Riders have come back from worse starts than that this year, but let’s play this out. Even if you want to assume the next 57:20 of this game would have played out exactly the same way as it did, if you give the Riders six points — because are we really going to assume the PAT would have been hit? — then it is a 32-20 game. It doesn’t seem like a big difference, but Vernon Adams Jr.’s two-point scamper would still have only made it a two-possession game and, as cliché as it might be, that is far from a safe lead in the CFL.

You also have to account for the early boost that gives you. This was a massive game, and if the Riders had been able to march down and score before a lot of fans had even sat down, it would have been huge. Instead, it felt like a gut punch early on that was difficult to work back from against one of the best teams in the league.

Trampled in a stampede

We all saw what happened when these two teams took the field in Regina in July. Calgary completely controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball against a Riders team that hadn’t had that happen to them in a really long time.

The talk this week was that Saskatchewan would turn into the Michael Jordan “We took that personally” meme, and wouldn’t allow that to happen again. But then the game started, and the exact same thing took place.

Trevor Harris had pressure in his face all game, altering throws, forcing interceptions, and sacking the veteran QB four times. There are times when a sack is on the QB; these weren’t. Three of the four sacks came as Harris was getting to the top of his drop. We’ve heard about DBs running the route for the receiver or linebackers taking the handoff from the RB. Well, these felt like sacks where the Stamps were dropping with the QB.

On the defensive side, the team with the most sacks in the CFL had a real problem getting to the Calgary QB. Adams had a pretty clean pocket to throw from for most of this game. It is startling to see the Riders have their strength be the trenches, game plan all week after getting dominated by the Stamps in that area, and still get completely owned in that battle.

Predictable play-calling

Since the Riders were beaten up by Calgary, their offence has been on fire. Saskatchewan averaged 29 points per game while winning all four games, but they were shut down in this one by a very good Stampeders defence.

A quick trip through social media will tell you what Rider Nation felt the problem was: running the ball up the middle on first down. And if you have read even one of these columns, you will know that I agree completely. In the first three quarters of this game, Saskatchewan had 25 plays on first down. 10 of them were runs up the middle, gaining 40 yards. In total, on first down, they ran it 14 times for 57 yards and passed it 11 times for 110 yards. So, just based on raw counting numbers, the Riders were much more effective when they were throwing it on first down, though the 62-yard play to Johnson skews those a bit. 

Why does this matter? Well, as we talked about earlier, Saskatchewan was dominated in the trenches throughout this game, but they kept trying to run up the gut anyway. The Riders’ runs up the middle gave them an average of four yards per carry. That means, on average, it was second-and-six after those plays. That makes your offence very predictable, and predictable is the last thing you want to be against that Calgary defence. Three of Calgary’s four sacks came on second-and-six or longer. 

Now, credit where credit is due, Calgary’s defence was fantastic in this game, regardless of the down and distance. Yes, the passing offence averaged a first down every time they threw the ball on first down, but both of Harris’ picks came on first down, and he was sacked one time as well. It doesn’t all come down to play-calling; sometimes the other team is just better and executing at a high level. But the Riders still didn’t put themselves in the best spot to succeed for a lot of this game, and it shows on the scoreboard. 

Everything was hard

That last thought was pretty nerdy, so let’s pivot to Ye Olde Eye Test for this one. Anecdotally, it felt like everything came easy for the Stamps while the Riders had to grind and battle for every yard they had.

When Saskatchewan had the ball, it felt like Calgary had 25 defenders on the field; there just wasn’t room to do anything. Running lanes were nonexistent, and it felt like every receiver had three defenders on him. Meanwhile, when Calgary had the ball, it felt like Saskatchewan had seven men on the field. The pocket was clean, and Dedrick Mills had his choice of multiple open rushing lanes that led to a sparsely defended second level.

In Calgary, this was dubbed the Battle on the Prairies, which was fitting because it felt like each Stamps receiver had acres of room to catch and run. You can grind through that for a drive or a quarter, or even a half. But it is very difficult to win when it feels like every inch is a battle.

Just a bit outside

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me four times, shame on everyone involved.

I feel like I gave Brett Lauther the benefit of the doubt after his first two-for-five game against Hamilton. He had a rough game against Montreal this time last year; he bounced back and missed one field goal the rest of the season. Then, he goes one-for-three against Calgary, and still, I didn’t want to give up on him. Last week, his second two-for-five outing against Hamilton had me losing my patience, but some could still explain away the poor performance because of the blustery conditions. However, this one, there was no excuse for.

There was barely any wind to speak of at McMahon. It was in the first quarter, so I can’t imagine the nerves of the situation got to him, and it was from 28 yards out, which is closer than a convert after a TD. And Lauther still missed.

I am sure he is beating himself up over this situation, but the Riders need to fix this. They have eight games left, and five of them are against teams in a playoff spot. You can’t afford to just give away points every game. With this game, Lauther now has four games where he has a field goal percentage lower than 50 percent. That is just not acceptable for a team that has Grey Cup aspirations.  

Final thoughts

I have read the comments on these stories, and I know there are some who think I can be too negative about this team. I really don’t think this game is one of those times. The Riders were outplayed on offence, defence, and special teams. They were out-executed and out-coached. The Stampeders basically out-footballed the Riders. 

I don’t think you can just wash your hands of it by saying “it was just an off day,” because they’ve had the exact same type of “off day” against the exact same opponent two times now. 

Looking at the big picture, Saskatchewan still has the best record in the league, and the playoffs are all but a certainty. The odds are good that a postseason game is coming to Regina. But when you come one win shy of the best start in franchise history, the bar needs to be higher than that. This is a very good football team and one that could close out the year hoisting the Grey Cup in their biggest rival’s stadium. To get there, this type of performance shouldn’t be accepted; it should be learned from.

The problem is, we won’t really know if they did learn from it or improve enough until November if these two teams play again. After the Stampeders controlled Saskatchewan, the Riders looked like they had grown from that experience. They controlled the Lions in a game where the score didn’t do Saskatchewan’s excellent performance justice. Then, after a sloppy win against Edmonton, they absolutely destroyed the top two teams in the East. They were saying all the right things, and they were doing everything exactly how they should. And this game still happened.

The Riders could come out next week and blow right through Winnipeg, starting an eight-game winning streak that would lead them straight to the West Final while leaving a path of destruction in their wake. But if that West Final is against Calgary, regardless of how dominant those eight games are, I’m still going to have these two performances in the back of my head going into that game. Any talk of the Riders being the best team in the league is going to have a horse-shaped cloud hanging over it.

So now, instead of sitting in a nice little rocking chair, the battle for first in the West and home-field advantage in the West Final is going to be a stressful grind. For the teams, this type of pressure is a privilege. As a fan, you’d rather this than already feeling like you are out of it, but it is going to include a lot of yelling at TVs across the prairies over the next couple of months. 

And it starts Labour Day weekend with the classic rivalry with the Bombers, the first of three matchups these two will have over the next eight games. We will see what lessons the Riders learn from this game as the sprint to the playoffs starts now.